Don Vicente

This portrait is from Don Vicente, one of the guides of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. He spend all day with me and my friends, and he was really friendly. During the day I took some photos of him, but in none of them he looked straight to my camera, maybe he was protecting himself. Below from the photo is some information about the Reserve.

© Miguel A. Lopes

The Sian Ka'an Biosphere reserve is a tract of 500,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) set aside in 1986 to preserve tropical forests, savannas, mangroves, coastal and marine habitats, and 110km (70 miles) of coastal reefs. The area is home to jaguars, pumas, ocelots, margays, jaguarondis, spider and howler monkeys, tapirs, white-lipped and collared peccaries, manatees, brocket and white-tailed deer, crocodiles, and green, loggerhead, hawksbill, and leatherback sea turtles. It also protects 366 species of birds -- you might catch a glimpse of an ocellated turkey, a great curassow, a brilliantly colored parrot, a toucan or trogon, a white ibis, a roseate spoonbill, a jabiru (or wood stork), a flamingo, or one of 15 species of herons, egrets, and bitterns.The park has three parts: a "core zone" restricted to research; a "buffer zone," to which visitors and families already living there have restricted use; and a "cooperation zone," which is outside the reserve but vital to its preservation. Driving south from Tulum on Highway 307, everything on the left side of the highway is part of the reserve. Most tours enter the bio preserve on this side at the community of Muyil where there are canals built by the Maya that lead to a lagoon. At least 22 archaeological sites have been charted within Sian Ka'an.